Messages

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Didn't read a warning message and now I can't jog

« on: December 29, 2020, 04:07:43 PM »

So what ever came of this deal and what was the message ? Things like this is the reason this forum is here to help everyone whats the point to get on ask a question find out the answer to it and never return to give the update ??

Haven't solved it yet. I'll be back when/if I do.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Is there a way to set a shortcut key or Hotkey for Jog Increments? (MACH3)

« on: December 06, 2019, 03:56:49 PM »

OK so I figured it out late last night.

Here's the steps for future readers:

1) Using Mach3Screen or Screen4, make 5 buttons on Screen 50 ( the Mpg screen ) and drop them off in the blank space to the right where the '(' and ') buttons are or on the screen if you intend to use these buttons and not a physical button panel (like I am)

2) Assign these buttons OEM values 191 thru 195 (196 thru 200 are the same thing)

• 191 = 1.0000
• 192 = 0.1000
• 193 = 0.0100
• 194 = 0.0010
• 195 = 0.0001

3) Assign each of these buttons the hotkey of Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, Ctrl+3 and so on.

Once you do that, save the .set file in the MACH3 Directory and set that to screen you want when you open MACH

If you're doing this to make a control panel with an arduino, I can post the code later if you'd like but the gist is that you just assign the button from the control panel to execute that short cut.

I'll try to post some screen shots tonight as well

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Is there a way to set a shortcut key or Hotkey for Jog Increments? (MACH3)

« on: December 05, 2019, 11:09:09 PM »

There are lots of videos on youtube about screen4 and machscreen for editing mach3 screens

Yeah that doesn't much help me and is the reason I'm here. I'm trying to find a way to SET a hotkey to each individual increment. So one hotkey for 1/1 step, one hotkey for 1/10 increment, one hotkey for 1/100 increment and one for 1/1000 increment. Right now all I have is Alt+J which just cycles the increments and I already know how to set or change that hot key to anything else.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: Is there a way to set a shortcut key or Hotkey for Jog Increments? (MACH3)

« on: December 05, 2019, 04:22:26 PM »

You can set hot keys in the screen editor for most functions

Do you have a tutorial you could share?

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General Mach Discussion / Is there a way to set a shortcut key or Hotkey for Jog Increments? (MACH3)

« on: December 05, 2019, 12:04:01 AM »

So I'm making a pendant for my CNC that just sends basic key strokes to the computer. What I'm looking for is a way to set the jog increment based on a single button I click but I can't find any information on how to set the jog increment up using a hot key. (I'm not talking about alt+J, I'm not looking to cycle it, I want to click a specific increment)

So what I want to do is as follows
Press Switch 1 → Switch 1 sends a [hot key command] to computer → Jog increment set to 1.000
Press Switch 2 → Switch 2 sends a [hot key command] to computer → Jog increment set to 0.100
Press Switch 3 → Switch 3 sends a [hot key command] to computer → Jog increment set to 0.010
Press Switch 4 → Switch 4 sends a [hot key command] to computer → Jog increment set to 0.001
Press Switch 5 → Switch 5 sends a [hot key command] to computer → Jog increment set to 0.100

Now as far as hot key commands go, I'm trying to keep it simple like
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+[

and I'd like to not have to refer to some VB script or something even more extravagant than that.

For each increment. So if I hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+I, the increment is set to 1.000, and if I hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+P, the increment is set to 0.010 and if I hit Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O, it's 0.100 and so on.

And lastly, in case anyone is confused. I want to make these buttons essentially : https://i.imgur.com/pQkZUcm.png

6

General Mach Discussion / Re: Didn't read a warning message and now I can't jog

« on: June 27, 2018, 02:38:54 PM »

Ok, after going back and forth with Andy over at SmoothSteppers, I'm pretty confident that the missed message had nothing to do with my current predicament.

Some things I have to check on :

Soft Limits, did I turn them on accidentally?
Limit OverRides - Can they be toggled?

7

General Mach Discussion / Didn't read a warning message and now I can't jog

« on: June 27, 2018, 12:54:57 PM »

I'm new here so forgive me. I couldn't find anything searching

My setup:
I have 2 cncs running off one ESS, a mill and router. The router is on port 1 and the mill is on Port 2

(I'll have to get you the exact versions and stuff later, I thought I had them on my work computer but I don't)
Computer - Win8, either 4 or 6 GB of Ram, i5 processor Surface Pro1
Mach3 - the version suggested by Warp9
ESS - ~Approximately the Lastest as of Aug ~ 2016
Port 1:
TB6560

Port 2:
k4030L drivers into a C10 board into ESS

Problem: I can run gcode just fine, I just can't jog. I click the jog button, it lights for a fraction of a second then goes away. I hit Tab to get the MPG. I can hit shuttle, that blinks on/off in yellow. I cannot toggle jog, jog/cycle/step, I cannot jog with the triangles

What I think the message said:

Something something something "Ess Smooth stepper made a change, if you did not mean to make this change please contact support" Something something something.

I have no idea what that message said or meant or anything and everything went to s*** after it popped up

Here's what I was doing:
I was attempting to get a touch probe to work, the type where you ground one end to the endmill and the other to a plate. The mill then moves to touch the plate, then zero's the dro etc..

My 'problem' was that the TB6560 doesn't have a port for a probe. I figured, no worries, I'll just use the one off the other. So first I was checking to see if one of the extra ports on the TB6560 could sub as a pin for a probe, I started checking limit switch pins on Port1 going from 1,2,3 to 23,24,25 (IOW I set xhome, yhome, zhome and probe to pins 1,2,3,4 respectively. I then touched the ground clip to the plate and checked the 'LEDs' on the diagnostics page for action. Nothing lite up so I incremented them to 5,6,7,8 and so on to 25.)

After that, I had this "brilliant" thought to just use the probe pin on the C10 board, pin 12 or 13 (I forget which I had setup at the moment but we'll just assume it's 12 for this). So I went back into the Ports & Pins screen and changed the probe from Pin 25 Port 2, to Port 1 Pin 12.

When I closed the Ports & Pins screen, I got the pop up. usually that pop up is the ESS lost connection or something. This time it was something different but muscle memory took over and I closed it before reading it. I then attempted to jog the machine over to the plate and do the probe. I couldn't jog it. "Hmm... weird", I then noticed the Jog button on screen 1 was no longer lit. I clicked it on, and it went green then black again. Then I tried every other screen to see if I could jog it and nothing worked and that's when I might have cried or got something in my eye, I'm not sure...

Here's what I tried to fix it.

1) Tried every possible method to toggle jog on, MPG, TAB, Ctrl+ arrows, Shift + Arrows etc.
2) Turn everything off and on again.
3) Verified I could run GCode, I can so it's not a motor coms issue
4) Went back to settings I had backed up when the machine was first installed - Nothing...
5) I thought it was because ESS was seeing 6 Drivers, so I figured, eh, maybe it won't allow jogging because it doesn't know what I want to jog. So I uplugged port 1. No change..

((Frustration set in))

6) Uninstalled Mach and reinstalled it - Jog still doesn't work

To Do:

Tonight I am going to remove everything Mach and ESS related and start from 0, if that doesn't work... well lets not think about that just yet.

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General Mach Discussion / Re: motors not turning - please help (newbie)

« on: June 03, 2011, 10:34:50 PM »

Update 4: Ok, after following the advice of Fastest1 and a few others, I tuned my motors a bit and I was able to get my motors to perform a gcode with little to no grinding noises. I think after a little more tuning I'll be confident in installing the motors and building my machine WOOOO WHOOOO! So thanks guys for your help I really appreciate it!

PS I also had to move my y channels from 4 & 5 to 8 & 9 this solved the problem in which the motor would turn great in one direction but horrible in another. - Thanks for the tip Thys

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General Mach Discussion / Re: motors not turning - please help (newbie)

« on: June 01, 2011, 10:30:11 PM »

Update #3: ::sigh:: OK, so it was not the size wire though I feel more comfortable with the larger gauge wire. I switched ports that the signals are coming out of and that did fix some of the problem. So here's whats going on now. When jogging at 30% (which I'm not sure that means anything to anybody) all three motors jog wonderfully. However when I plug in a Gcode, the motors sound like a 30cal machine gun going off and is awfully loud. Now, the Gcode I'm running looks like a tomb stone and It starts on the round side of it so I don't know if it smooths out once I get to the flat edges however given how loud these are I'm not sure I want to.  So I'm googling like crazy to find a solution to this now... gotta love trouble shooting...

Ok Now here's my question, What is your dip switches on the motor controllers set at? I have 1-8 dip switches and all but 2 are up, so that should give me 3.0amp at 1 micro step. I'm thinking about changing it to 1/2 micro step but I wanted to hear what someone else had first

That is all for now

Thanks again for helping me get this far,
-Brian

ps  after reading over some earlier posts of mine I apologize for my awful proof reading (or lack there of )

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General Mach Discussion / Re: motors not turning - please help (newbie)

« on: June 01, 2011, 10:28:34 AM »

I see I'm going to try it, I think the problem may be that I am using too small gauge wiring, I'm going to change my wires to 18awg tonight and see if that helps. Right now my 5v signals are 24 awg and to my motors is two strands of 24awg which I think might be choking it. I read on a couple other forums that the sputtering is due to low voltage getting to the motors too so if the gauge switching doesn't help I'll try your method. Hopefully one or the other will work. Also you asked to see some projects, were you talking about in CAD form or actual finished projects?